


The Crystal Model

by Mary_West



Category: Interstella 5555
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 03:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17035414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary_West/pseuds/Mary_West
Summary: Shep met her once. And since then, his heart has belonged to Stella. He even made a model of the band, ostensibly for his nephew. But if only he could see her again...





	The Crystal Model

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/gifts).



He'd met her once.

Just once.

He was at the Engineering school, visiting for the first time since he'd finished his degree, collecting a few last signatures on his application for a Shuttle Maintenance Technician Traineeship, and the last signature had to be the Principal's. He'd expected to have the waiting room to himself, but there was a woman there with someone who could only be her brother, so similar were they. Her briefcase was beside her and her notepad on her knees while she wrote madly. She'd glanced up at him, smiled, then gone back to her writing. Shep assumed that she was just keeping her brother company while he waited for his own meeting, but just as Shep started to ask, the Principal's door opened and she was ushered in.

The brother leaned back in his seat and grinned at Shep.

"She's discussing her research project."

"Research project? She's a honours candidate?"

"She did that last year. This is her doctoral research. She's working on exactly which frequency of sound waves conduct best into the brain for the benefit of people with anxiety and other issues. Stella's work on the resonance of the tiny bones in the ear and their attached muscles and nerves is amazing." The blond man leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. "I can't follow it at all, and I'm the one who started her on it. Oh – sorry – Arpegius."

He held out his hand, and Shep shook it and introduced himself. "I'm just finished. Three years of shuttle maintenance and I'll be eligible to train as a squad pilot. Although I've been taking some lessons privately. What do you do?"

"I have a band. Play guitar. Not ready to settle down just yet, so I keep a roof over our heads with our music." Arpegius grinned, and leaned back again against the wall. "It's Stella's music, really. I'm part of her project, so I suppose it's her that does the work, but it's fun as well. How many people can claim that?"

To their surprise, the Principal's door opened again, and Stella came out, shaking hands with the Principal as she did.

"All sorted?" Arpegius was on his feet, looking worried. "That was quick."

"It was already approved. I just needed to sign the final documents." She slipped a folder into her briefcase, hugged her brother then turned to Shep. "Hello there."

"Hello." He would have – should have – said more but the Principal was waiting for him.

"Good luck," Arpegius said, but Stella did not echo it.

Her exact words were "It's not luck. It's your hard work. Do it because you can."

He was too dumbstruck to reply. His last glimpse of her was as the door was shutting behind him and the Principal was picking up an elegant pen and starting through the documents.

In the two years since, Shep had thought of her every day. Her bright smile, full of knowledge and caring. Her walk, in that short distance from the chairs to the door, then again when she came out. He'd found her band. It wasn't difficult – they were now the biggest thing on the planet. But every time they were playing a gig anywhere he could get to, he had ship duty.

There were advantages to being the lead technician though, a position he had held for the past six months. He had sole command of an emergency shuttle, and the responsibility of making sure it was able to be activated within 5 minutes at any time. Being in charge of the data usage meant he had been able to stream all the concerts with impunity. Slow impunity, that was. He had the latest one recording as he worked outside – he might be able to sneak listening to them while he was working, but the entire concert stream would take several hours to download. They'd done brilliantly – Octave was the perfect voice to complement their playing, and the enthusiasm of Baryl, the drummer, gave the performance an amazing boost. Shep had been so inspired by their lineup that he made a small crystal-operated model of the band for his nephew. The figures were rudimentary, but it played and they swayed and he'd put his heart into it and that was all that mattered. Next time he was on solid ground, he'd pass it on to the small chap.

But right now, he had an aerial to retune, the side of the hull to polish, and then time for a dream-filled nap before the feed of a magnificent concert. He hummed along to _One More Time_ as he reached for the tethered screwdriver, instinctively checked his oxygen level and went back to work.

 

========================= **** ===== **** =========================

 

 

He'd tried. Really tried. His brain had told him that saving three of the four in the middle of the concert was pretty incredible, but his heart told him that being unable to free Stella from the brain-control node meant his entire rescue mission was a failure. And now he was alone, left in the old warehouse while Arpegius, Octave and Baryl tried to save her. He hoped they could. He didn't think he could be any more help – his golden life fluid was dripping from where the pursuit team had shot him, and the others, while they had bandaged him as best they could, were no doctors. He'd lied, of course. Told Arpegius that it wasn't too bad, and that it was up to the rest of the band to save Stella from whatever malevolent plan Earl de Darkwood had in mind for her. And so they'd left him to his pain, his frustration and his dreams.

Shep had his dreams. He'd had them since he met her. He'd had them while he was waiting for the concert to download, lying back on his bunk with the picture of Stella above him. The dream was usually the same. Her skin would still be the beautiful blue he was used to, and she'd hold out her hand to him and he'd float up and fly with her across a landscape dotted with glorious flowers and twisting clouds and a light that made both of them glow. But the dream would always end just as they almost kissed.

This time, though, it was different. He was in a landscape that was both flowers _and_ clouds, and there was a blue glow. He knew that glow. It was the sign that there wasn't much time, that the last of his life force was ebbing away. But he saw her, still with that strange skin colour but wearing a dress more lovely than anything he would have imagined her in.

The others had brought her back.

"Of course it was you." Stella's eyes widened as she recognised Shep. "Because it wasn't luck that saved us. It was your hard work."

It didn't make sense. They should be happy. They could go home now, but Baryl was trying hard not to cry, and Octave was telling him that he had succeeded, and Arpegius was telling him that they'd save him too … then Stella came up to him and took his hand, and the blue glow enveloped them both and Shep fell into his dreamscape and took her with him. Removed the ghastly pink glasses, and saw her skin as it should be, the most delicate shade of blue, matching his own life force.

He summoned the very last of his strength, and passed to her the crystal-operated model of them as they _should_ be. And his heart. But no. She'd had that since the day they met.

As long as she lived, as long as the band made it home, he would be a part of them forever. Because he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: ☆ Stella/Shep: what of Shep and Stella's relationship? Had they met each other before the events of the movie? Perhaps had dated before Shep went on his space work, or was he just a really huge fan who ended up being tasked with the mission of rescuing the band he idolizes, and the woman he pines for, so much?


End file.
